When a Micro-Robot Encounters a Bowel Lesion

目前，对肠癌的检测是通过内镜下结肠黏膜的目视检查来进行的，这对于不易观察到的小病变来说不太可靠。如果没有在早期发现并切除，它们就有可能癌变。该项目旨在开发一种新的数学工具，用于分析微型机器人的传感能力，以帮助检测难以可视化的肠道病变。经历振动、摩擦和冲击的微型机器人，被称为非光滑系统，在给定的一组参数下，表现出多种不同的长期行为共存，这被称为多稳定性或共存吸引子。当机器人在结肠中移动并遇到病变时，某些特定的吸引子可能会主导其动力学，而其他共存的吸引子可能会由于组织的机械特性与恶性转化的不同阶段相关而逐渐消失。这种多稳定性的显著变化可用于区分健康组织和异常组织。申请人建议通过发展最先进的数值技术，首次使用机器人的多稳定性来分析这种机器人与病变的相关性，并为癌症检测和分期提供一套计算分析和先进的控制方法。从长远来看，这项工作将为肠癌筛查开创一种新的模式，为患者提供一种有效的微创手术。该项目独特的研究方法，数值和实验研究的共同努力，以及与一位应用数学家和两位NHS胃肠病学家的研究合作，将确保英国在应用非光滑动力学，微型机器人和早期癌症诊断方面的全球领先地位。

Detection of bowel cancer is currently performed by visual inspection of the colonic mucosa during endoscopy, which is less reliable for small-sized lesions that are not easily visualised. If they are not detected and removed at an early stage, there is a chance that they may become cancerous. This project seeks to develop a new mathematical tool for analysing the sensing capability of micro-robots to aid the detection of hard-to-visualise bowel lesions. Micro-robots experiencing vibrations, frictions, and impacts, known as non-smooth systems, exhibit a rich variety of different long-term behaviours co-existing for a given set of parameters, which is referred to as multi-stability or co-existing attractors. When the robot moves in the colon and encounters a lesion, some particular attractor may dominate its dynamics, while the other co-existing attractors could fade away due to the tissue's mechanical properties associated with different stages of malignant transformation. This significant change in multi-stability can be utilised to distinguish between healthy and abnormal tissues. The applicant proposes to use for the first time robot's multi-stability through the development of state-of-the-art numerical techniques to analyse such robot-lesion correlation, and produce a suite of computational analysis and advanced control methods for cancer detection and staging. In the long term, this work will initiate a new modality for bowel cancer screening, delivering an efficient minimally invasive procedure for patients. The unique research approach of this project, a joint effort of numerical and experimental studies, and the research collaboration with an applied mathematician and two NHS gastroenterologists, will secure a leading global position for the UK in applied non-smooth dynamics, micro-robots and early cancer diagnosis.